GULF SHORES, Alabama – Sometimes the play-calling is fine, the talent on the field is great and the result is incredible – and for some reason there are still a lot of empty seats in the stands.

The opening night of the second annual SEC BeachFest was just that kind of game: The kind where lots of people end up hearing about the great things they missed.

Marc Broussard is shown on a large video screen as he performs at the SEC BeachFest in Gulf Shores. Country star Rodney Atkins is scheduled to headline on Saturday. (Lawrence Specker/lspecker@al.com)

As its name indicates, the event presented by Gulf Shores & Orange Beach tourism celebrates Southern football culture. Highlights include appearances by a number of celebrated players and coaches and a variety of interactive activities for fans, all on the public beach at the foot of Ala. 59 in Gulf Shores.

There’s also an entertainment component included in the ticket price, which starts at $25 for the weekend. On Friday, the Mulligan Brothers, a group based on the central Gulf Coast, opened an evening concert for Louisiana rocker Marc Broussard. Another show is due to follow at 8 p.m. Saturday, this one headlined by country star Rodney Atkins. (Click here for a related interview with Atkins.)

Attendance on Friday, to put it simply, was sparse. Broussard played to a crowd of several hundred people, which was respectable in and of itself, but a far cry from the thousands that could have found room on the open sand in front of the stage, set up near the Hangout restaurant.

One factor that likely played a big role was the threat of rain generated by unsettled conditions in the Gulf of Mexico. As the sun set, conditions were indeed cloudy and the threat of storms was real -- but the rain held off until the last few minutes of the performance.

Up until that point, those who ventured out to BeachFest were richly rewarded. Temperatures were moderate and a steady sea breeze made them feel cooler. A few drops fell at the beginning of the Mulligan Brothers' set, and a few more midway through Broussard's -- but it seemed that any serious precipitation would hold off.

The setting gave the Mulligan Brothers a chance to make a strong first impression on some new listeners with their blend of folk, adult pop and Americana, and the quartet didn’t waste it. Out in the crowd, Foley resident Tom Spangrud opined that “a lot of bands wouldn’t want these guys opening for them,” because they were good enough to make an unwary headliner look bad.

Spangrud added, though, that he’d been a fan of Broussard for years, and that he seemed to favor high-quality openers.

Broussard started out gently, emphasizing his singer-songwriter side before moving into grittier fare such as his swamp-rock hit “Home” and a detour into Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe.” For much of his set he alternated between driving funk and more soulful R&B-influenced tunes.

View full sizeYeah, SEC fans know a thing or two about what it takes to be a diehard. As rain set in near the end of Marc Broussard's performance Friday night at the SEC BeachFest in Gulf Shores, a few true believers stuck it out for the last note. (Lawrence Specker/lspecker@al.com)

About 75 minutes in, a light drizzle began to fall. At first it wasn't enough to run off many listeners, but it persisted for ten or fifteen minutes and then began getting heavier. Broussard ended up playing his last couple of songs to a wilting crowd. To the few dozen who stuck around despite the soaking, those might well have been the most memorable songs of the night.

All in all, not a bad night on the beach. And for the record, it wasn’t all about the SEC. Broussard was happy to call out occasional reports from another realm.

“By the way, the Saints are up 23-20, y’all,” he called out at one point, to general applause.